Okla. Replaces Smashed Commandments Display
The state of Oklahoma has replaced its Ten Commandments monument after the original one was destroyed last fall.
In October, a 29-year-old man drove his car across the Capitol lawn and crashed into the monument, smashing it into pieces.
Police arrested him the next day and he was admitted to a hospital for mental health treatment. Formal charges were never filed.
The replacement 6-foot-tall headstone-like granite monument is identical to the original and an exact replica of the Ten Commandments monument at the Texas Capitol.
Oklahoma erected the original one in 2012 after a Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill authorizing it and then-Gov. Brad Henry, a Democrat, signed it into law.
However, the Oklahoma Supreme Court is considering the legality of the monument after a Norman man sued to remove it.
He said the monument violates the state's Constitution, which includes a prohibition against using public property to support "any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion."
Other groups have also asked to erect monuments on the Oklahoma Capitol grounds. They include a satanic group that wants to put up a statue depicting Satan as a goat-headed figure, a Hindu leader, and an animal rights group.
